Graham Gleed – Bridgwater

February 2018

Furious judge slams Bridgwater paedophile

A furious judge has blasted sentencing guidelines that prevented him from locking up a paedophile who said he thought “some of them looked like they were enjoying it.”

50-year-old Graham Gleed from Old Taunton Road, Bridgwater had admitted downloading thousands of images of children aged between three and 15 being sexually abused.

He admitted making 54 indecent photographs of children in the most serious Category A.

He also admitted two more similar offences between the same dates involving 54 indecent photographs in Category B, and 3,767 indecent photographs of children in Category C, over a three year period.

Prosecuting, Nikki Coombe said police had seized his computers from his home on February 10 last year and found the horrific cache of images.

“He also admitted to the police that he had uploaded some images, and that he had a Barbie fetish,” she told Taunton Crown Court.

Defending, Rebecca Bradberry said Gleed had made full admissions and been “frank and honest” with the police when he was arrested.

Clearly furious, Judge David Ticehurst said his hands were tied by sentencing guidelines issued by the National Sentencing Council, which meant he could not send Gleed to jail for long enough for him to complete a sex offenders treatment programme.

“You told the probation officer that you thought ‘Some of them looked like they were enjoying it’,” he raged.

He gave a graphic description of one of the images Gleed had downloaded, showing a three-year-old girl being tied up and abused.

“I want you to tell everyone in this this court how much you enjoyed looking at this image.”

Dumbstruck, the defendant mumbled: “I don’t know what to say.”

“This is what you derived sexual pleasure from,” the judge said. “If it weren’t for people like you, those little girls would not have suffered at the hands of people like you. The National Sentencing Council guidelines are simply too lenient.

“I think that offenders like you should receive long prison sentences, but there is no point in locking you up for a few months if you won’t receive treatment.”

Instead, he sentenced him to a three year community order and ordered him to complete a 95 day sex offender programme.

He was also ordered to carry out 45 days of rehabilitation activities, 120 hours of unpaid work and made him the subject of a 10 year sexual harm prevention order and five years on the sex offender’s registr.

He also ordered him to pay £500 costs.

“Everyone in this court is disgusted by you, and your behaviour,” the judge told him. “Get out.”